Mexican authorities deported Andrew Luster, who was then flown back to California via commercial airliner and

Too funny. Someone made a "human error" at a New Zealand tv station last night and displayed this graphic to 360,000 people watching the news. The station has apologized and promised an investigation.

The U.S. is expected to announce the indictment of 17 Detroit cops for stealing money from drug dealers and prostitutes. The joint state-federal investigation has been ongoing for a year.

The investigation took so long because of perceived credibility issues with the victims and the firing of Former Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, head of the corruptions unit.

Brown was fired May 9 allegedly for investigating accusations of wrongdoing by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his inner circle.

....Police officials said Wednesday that the indictments all stem from allegations against officers in southwest Detroit, primarily the 3rd (Vernor) and 4th precincts. Brown also said that the cases stem from southwest Detroit.

A 3rd Precinct officer, who also requested anonymity, said Wednesday that at least 20 officers from both precincts testified on the matter before federal grand juries earlier this year.

Last year, three officers from the 5th (Jefferson) Precinct were sentenced in U.S. District Court on similar charges.

This is an outrage and it is not getting enough attention. The United States has just barred American lawyers from defending war crime suspects at the U.N. Tribunal for Yugoslavia. We expect lawyers to file motions to stay proceedings while this is resolved. You can expect a loud protest from the defense bar. Stay tuned.

An executive order is aimed a cutting off support to about 200 people and organizations in the former Yugoslavia blacklisted by the U.S. government. It outlaws providing goods, services and funds to those people.

....The list, published on a U.S. government Web site, includes all the suspects in proceedings at the Yugoslav tribunal, including former President Slobodan Milosevic and his entire family.

About 20 American lawyers are defending suspects at the Yugoslav tribunal, which was established in 1993 to prosecute those to blame for war crimes during Yugoslavia's violent breakup in the 1990s.

We wrote about Bush fave Albert Gonzales and his Texas Clemency Memos here. Just a reminder they are online here.

As the legal counsel to Texas Governor George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales — now the White House counsel, and widely regarded as a likely future Supreme Court nominee—prepared 57 confidential death-penalty memoranda for Bush's review. Never before discussed publicly, the memoranda suggest that Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise Bush of some of the most salient issues in the cases at hand.

....During Bush's 6 years as governor 150 men and 2 women were executed in Texas—a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history. Each time a person was sentenced to death, Bush received from his legal counsel a document summarizing the facts of the case, usually on the morning of the day scheduled for the execution, and was then briefed on those facts by his counsel; based on this information Bush allowed the execution to proceed in all cases but one. The first 57 of these summaries were prepared by Gonzales...

Author Alan Berlow obtained the never before published memos, which is permitted under the Texas Public Information Act.

Joe Conasen writes approvingly today about a Kerry-Clark ticket. He calls it a "one-two punch." We agree. So does Eric, over at Hamster.

Amnesty International has released a new report focusing on what happens to children who enter the U.S. without parents.

Illegal immigrant children who are detained after entering the United States without parents often are imprisoned with young convicts, denied access to lawyers and at times strip-searched or placed in solitary confinement for minor infractions, according to a new report by an advocacy organization.

"I would describe the situation as Dickensian," said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "It's truly incredible that in the 21st century in the United States we would allow children who themselves have been victims of crimes to be treated this way."

Former VP Al Gore has a new avocation--he is seeking funding to start a liberal-oriented cable news channel and a liberal talk radio station.

Sounds good to us. Should we add that we're available to comment?

The New York Times has this profile of Robert Morvillo, Martha Stewart's chief lawyer.

Dog the Bounty Hunter made good on his promise five months ago to bring in Max Factor Heir Andrew Luster.

He's an ex-felon turned muscle-shirted, leather-pants-wearing, born-again Christian bounty hunter. The motto of his Honolulu-based company: "From 18 to 80 Blind crippled or Crazy If they can't walk or crawl we'll Drag Em Back."

We remember when Dog first hooked up with motivational Guru Anthony Robbins. Robbins lived in Hawaii and Dog went out there and fell in love with the place. What does Robbins think about Dog now?

"Dog's a genius at the practical side of humanity, especially when it comes to understanding the criminal mind," says Anthony Robbins, world-renowned motivational speaker who talks highly of the bounty hunter's abilities in his book Awaken the Giant Within. "He's the best in the world at what he does."

Dog says he ain't no role model but Robbins disagrees:

In fact, he allowed his son, Joshua, to spend many summers under the bounty hunter's wing simply because he found Dog to be a fine example. "What makes him so special," Robbins adds, "is that he has the mind-set to convert these criminals to a better life. Itss as if hess here to serve a greater good."

How does someone become a bounty hunter anyway?

Chapman says he first worked as a bounty hunter in 1979 after serving 18 months of a five-year sentence in Texas. A leader in a motorcycle gang called the Devil's Disciples, he was convicted for his role in a fatal shooting that took place during a drug deal.

When Chapman was fresh out of jail and owing child support, a judge said he would make a payment toward the debt if Chapman could bring back a fugitive authorities were seeking. Chapman found his man and was hooked.

President Bush shows his arrogance again. He not only declines the Dems' reasonable request to caucus on Supreme Court replacement nominees, he nominates Ex-Starr Aide Brent Kavanaugh for a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This is the same appeals court for which he nominated Miguel Estrada. Kavanaugh co-authored Starr's report on former President Clinton.

Kavanaugh's nomination would suggest Bush is spoiling for a fight with Senate Democrats while the administration's selection of judges is already a raw issue between the parties. The D.C. Circuit court is considered the second most powerful in the land. Kavanaugh, 38, was involved in many of the Clinton administration's legal controversies, and has played a key role in choosing Bush's judicial nominees.

Kavanugh is a partner at Kirk and Ellis, the same firm as Starr. And consider this: There have been two vacancies on that court since Clinton was President. "Republicans blocked Clinton from filling at least one of them by arguing that additional judges were not needed."

[thanks to Steve Smith of Smythe's Blog for the link]

We're heartenend to see major media like the New York Times pay some attention to the inequities in the feds' immigrant roundup policies.

The Times reports that the FBI has relied on dubious tipsters for information that has led to the arrests and detention of many immigrants. The problems aren't over for the immigrants when they are released, because their names are still entered in a national crime registry as having been arrested for terrorism, even if they were never charged with a crime, which in turn results in their being denied housing, employment and even airplane tickets.

It's a long article, with lots of horror stories.